Patentable/Patents/US-9722971
US-9722971

Method for routing within a mobile terminal emulating a contactless payment card

PublishedAugust 1, 2017
Assigneenot available in USPTO data we have
Inventorsnot available in USPTO data we have
Technical Abstract

The present invention concerns the field of the emulation of contactless payment cards and more particularly the routing of the contactless communication within a device comprising several contactless payment card emulation circuits.The invention proposes a method for routing messages within an NFC controller. This controller has a table of the various applications hosted by the various secure elements. When the controller receives a request for the list of applications contained in the virtual payment card, it intercepts this request and responds with the list of the various applications accessible on the various secure elements. When a request aimed at selecting an application is received, the controller stores the secure element concerned and redirects all the messages to this element as long as it does not receive any new selection request.

Patent Claims
5 claims

Legal claims defining the scope of protection. Each claim is shown in both the original legal language and a plain English translation.

Claim 1

Original Legal Text

1. A routing method carried out by a mobile terminal intended to emulate a contactless payment card and comprising a near field radio communication component and a plurality of secure elements, each of said secure elements hosting applications, each application enabling said mobile terminal to communicate by means of the near field radio communication component with a payment terminal, said method being provided to route messages received from said payment terminal to a particular application stored in a particular secure element, said application being chosen by said payment terminal, comprising an initializing step of constituting a stored table in which are stored all the applications available on said mobile terminal and, for each of them, an identification of the secure element hosting said application, wherein said method performs under reception of, a message coming from a payment terminal; if the received message is a selection command intended for the payment terminal to receive the list of available applications on said mobile terminal: a step of forming said list of applications from said table, and; a step of sending said list to the payment terminal; if the message is an application selection command issued by said payment terminal for selecting a particular application: a step of determining, by consulting said stored table the secure element in which said particular application is hosted; a step of activating the secure element so determined; and a step of relaying said application selection command to the activated secure element; said method for all the other messages received, further comprising a step of relaying said received message to the activated secure element, and wherein said stored table comprises, for each application, an application identifier, termed public application identifier, in addition to its application identifier within the secure element in which it is hosted, this then being termed a real identifier, each public application identifier in the stored table being different and identifying uniquely one of the applications hosted by one of the secure elements: the step of forming said list of applications forms said list from the public identifiers rather than from the real identifiers of the applications; wherein, the step of relaying the received message to the activated element for its part comprises a step of replacing the public application identifier of the application with the real application identifier of the application prior to relaying the message to the activated secure element.

Plain English Translation

A mobile terminal emulates a contactless payment card using NFC. It has multiple secure elements, each hosting payment applications. The terminal routes messages from a payment terminal to the correct application within a secure element. A stored table maps public application identifiers (unique IDs for each app) to the secure element where the app resides and its internal "real" identifier. When the payment terminal requests a list of apps, the mobile terminal builds this list from the public identifiers in the table and sends it. When the payment terminal selects an app using its public identifier, the mobile terminal looks up the corresponding secure element and activates it. All subsequent messages are relayed to that secure element. Before relaying, the public identifier in the message is replaced with the application's real identifier within the secure element.

Claim 2

Original Legal Text

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: a step of updating said stored table when a modification occurs in the architecture of the secure elements of the mobile terminal.

Plain English Translation

The method for routing messages within a mobile terminal that emulates a contactless payment card also includes a step to update the stored table. This table contains a mapping of public application identifiers to the secure element where the app resides. The updating step happens when the configuration of the mobile terminal's secure elements changes, such as when an application is added, removed, or moved to a different secure element. This ensures that the routing table remains accurate and that payment requests are correctly routed to the appropriate application.

Claim 3

Original Legal Text

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said updating step is performed under the control of an updating module executed on the central processor of said terminal.

Plain English Translation

The method for routing messages within a mobile terminal that emulates a contactless payment card includes updating the stored table when the secure element architecture changes. This updating is performed by an updating module that runs on the mobile terminal's central processor. The updating module is responsible for detecting changes in the secure element configuration and modifying the routing table to reflect these changes.

Claim 4

Original Legal Text

4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising managing the rights of access to said table by said updating module.

Plain English Translation

The method for routing messages within a mobile terminal that emulates a contactless payment card, where an updating module on the central processor updates the stored table, further manages access rights to this table. This means the updating module has controlled permissions defining who or what can modify the table, likely to prevent unauthorized changes that could compromise payment security.

Claim 5

Original Legal Text

5. A mobile terminal emulating a contactless payment card and comprising a plurality of secure elements able to dialogue with a near field radio communication component, comprising means for the reception, by the radio communication component, of a message coming from a payment terminal; further comprising: means for forming said list from a stored table, when a selection command intended to receive the list of available applications is received, said list containing all or some of the applications available in all the secure elements; and means for sending said list to the payment terminal in response to the selection command received; means for consulting said stored table, when an application selection command is received, in order to identify the secure element hosting the selected application; means for storing the secure element identified as an active secure element; and means for relaying said application selection command to the active secure element; and means for relaying any other received command to the active secure element, and wherein, said stored table comprising, for each application, an application identifier, termed public application identifier, in addition to its application identifier within the secure element in which it is hosted, this then being termed a real identifier, each public application identifier in the stored table being different and identifying uniquely one of the applications hosted by one of the secure elements: the means for forming said list of applications forms said list from the public identifiers rather than from the real identifiers of the applications; wherein: the means for relaying the received message to the activated secure element for its part comprises means for replacing the public application identifier of the application with the real application identifier of the application prior to relaying the message to the activated secure element.

Plain English Translation

A mobile terminal emulates a contactless payment card. It includes multiple secure elements, an NFC communication component, a stored table mapping public application identifiers to specific secure elements, and means for routing messages from a payment terminal to the correct application. When a list of available apps is requested, the mobile terminal builds the list using public identifiers from the stored table and sends it to the payment terminal. Upon receiving an application selection command, the mobile terminal consults the table to identify the secure element hosting the selected application. The identified secure element is activated. Subsequent messages are then relayed to the activated secure element, after replacing the public identifier with the application's real identifier from the table.

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Patent Metadata

Filing Date

December 20, 2012

Publication Date

August 1, 2017

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Cite as: Patentable. “Method for routing within a mobile terminal emulating a contactless payment card” (US-9722971). https://patentable.app/patents/US-9722971

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